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2015 Dakar Rally
The 2015 Dakar Rally was the 36th and current running of the Dakar Rally and the 7th in South America. Nasser Al-Attiyah won his second cars title after having led from stage 2. Marc Coma defended his bikes title while Rafal Sonik and Ayrat Mardeev won their first titles in quads and trucks respectively. Report Bikes British motorcyclist Sam Sunderland who became the first Briton since John Deacon to win a stage on a bike in 2014, won the opening stage, but took a wrong turn on stage 2 and had to retire a couple of days later after a crash, thus again dashing his hopes of a first Dakar finish. The third stage, won by Motocross MX3 champion Matthias Walkner, was marred by the death of Polish rider Michał Hernik, 39, whose body was found by race organisers. Marc Coma took the lead after stage 8. Joan Barreda won the tenth and eleventh stages but was penalised in the latter so Ivan Jakeš got his first stage win. Coma won the bikes title for the fifth time. Toby Price was the first Australian rider since the late Andy Caldecott to win a motorbike stage on stage 12 and the first since Andy Haydon to finish in the top three. Cars Orlando Terranova won the first stage after a penalty was imposed on Nasser Al-Attiyah who was clocked at 68km/h in a section where a 50km/h limit applied, denying him the overall lead of the rally. However, he got this advantage back after winning the second, fourth and sixth stages. 2010 champion Carlos Sainz, in his first Dakar since his son Carlos Jr's announcement as a Formula One driver, crashed out on stage 5, whilst the defending champion Nani Roma won the ninth stage only to crash the next day. Al-Attiyah led to the end and won his second Cars title. For only the fifth time since his Dakar debut, Stéphane Peterhansel did not win any stages. Matt Campbell of Canada and his two co-drivers survived a dramatic high-speed accident on stage 7. Quads Defending champion Ignacio Casale won the first two stages, the latter coming after a penalty for Rafał Sonik. The undeterred Sonik took the lead after wins on stages 4 and 5 respectively. Winning stages for the first time were Lucas Bonetto, Nelson Sanabria and Jeremias González, while Christophe Declerck got his first stage win of the year on stage 11, four years to the day after his last win in in 2011. The final stage was won by South African debutant Willem Saaijman as Sonik won his first quads title, and also, the first Dakar win for a Polish pilot. Trucks Eduard Nikolaev took a hat-trick of stage wins as the rally drove onto Chilean soil, but Ayrat Mardeev took the lead after stage 7, eventually winning his first trucks title. Final standings (top 3) Stages Results Bikes Quads Cars Trucks Trivia *Seventh Dakar Rally in South America. *This was the first Dakar Rally since 2011 to finish in Buenos Aires. *73-year-old Yoshimasa Sugawara (the Japanese trucker, who is a six-time runner-up (1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005) and once third (2002), and battled with the likes of Karel Loprais and Vladimir Chagin) made a record 32nd appearance, and was one of the oldest pilots in the race. The youngest competitor was 18-year-old Jorge Lacunza. *One of the original starters from the first ever event in 1979, Jean-Jacques Ratet, also returned. *This was the fifth time that Stéphane Peterhansel entered and did not win a stage, the others being in 1999, 2001, 2007 and 2009. His worst finish in a car was in 2001 where he finished 12th. *CS Santosh was the first Indian racer to take part in the Dakar Rally riding a KTM. *Shamyrat Gurbanov and Rafael Gaynulin were the first drivers from Turkmenistan at the Dakar Rally. Category:Dakar Rally (South America) Category:Seasons